From the start of the book, I really got sucked into Mudbound and the whole story line surrounding it.  I especially liked the way the book started out in the funeral scene. It made me wonder how they go to that point and I assumed it was the end. However, the story line continued much much further and unveiled a surprising and sad ending to poor Ronsel that I wasn’t prepared for. This book’s message was obviously to do with the civil rights movement and the terrible inequality present in the South at the time. I appreciated the multiple points of view upon each chapter. It really gave me a grasp on how many lives were affected by this single story and brought to mind how if it were told in just solely Laura’s or Henry’s or Ronsel’s it would give the danger of a single story that we learned from AP English last year from Ngozi Adichie’s TED talk. Therefore portraying a completely different tone that was present. In some parts I would feel for Laura and her hateful relationship with Pappy and the struggles of farm life but when told from other views it seemed like she was very selfish in other parts so I have mixed feelings toward her. However, there is one thing I certainly believe. I HATE PAPPYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!1!1! When it got to the scene with Mr. Stokes and the Doctor, I was literally screaming at the book!! I think I’m glad they didn’t include a chapter told from Pappy’s point of view. And also I’m disappointed. It made him out to be a flat, two dimensional character. I wonder what was going through his head during those scenes. Whether they would simply be pure, hot evil or with a purpose and shielding his true feelings in all of that anger. I also felt a change in Henry as the story went along. Once he arrived at the farm he took a turn into more rude, opinionated views. I wonder if Pappy’s presence gave way to some of his reactions to Ronsel and Jamie’s behavior. Speaking of Jamie, I think he might of been my favorite character. He was one of the few people other than Laura and Florence to befriend and make Ronsel feel as if he was just like everyone else, a person.

In a sense, I believe the book accomplished it’s goal in my case. It made me realize and feel for the hatred Ronsel had to face even after seeing how he was a real person with real problems just like everyone else in the book in his chapters. To really be in the deep, ugly south during a prime time of hatred and separation between African Americans and the white farmers of Mississippi. A sadness and a helplessness is seen between the McAllen and the Jackson family’s as we come to an end when they meet their final departure. Although the began on healthy terms the hatred and bigotry present in post World War 2 times has split up a once functioning farm with more than one family having to leave because of the unsafe condition the town has provided for them.

To conclude, I just wanted to share an opinion and speculation I had about the ending of Pappy’s life. I had believed for a while that Pappy had been killed by Florence with her red, hot revenge at his doing to her son, but as I read on it lead on to be Jamie’s doing. It shocked me but also made sense and showed Jamie’s hate/love relationship with his father. He hated the act he had helped cause with Ronsel but he knew what his father was capable of and what he had always been like. A hateful, heavily opinionated, old man. And to put an end to the continued hatred and bigotry once and for all by his own flesh and blood sends a message that even in those times of almost no hope for African Americans in the south, there were people out there with the intention of their rights and ideals in mind. The story then ends with a sad but realistic ending of no consequences being dealt out for those involved in the maiming of Ronsel. Although for the reader it feels unfair and incomplete it sets forth a realism point of view that that’s how things were done back then and that there really isn’t always a happy ending when it comes to the state the south is in.

I appreciated this book immensely.  Thank you for having us read this. It’s a lot easier to read for summer assignment when you can actually bury yourself in the book and enjoy it like this one. Leebert16 out.